Republicans on the House judiciary and oversight committees announced they will meet next week to consider holding Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress, after he defied their subpoena to appear for a closed-door deposition last month.
The committees will meet on Wednesday to consider a report recommending a contempt of Congress resolution against President Joe Biden’s son, lawmakers said Friday.
“Hunter Biden blatantly defied two lawful subpoenas when he did not appear for his December deposition,” the judiciary committee said in a statement posted to X, formerly Twitter.
via Associated Press
“The President’s son doesn’t get special treatment,” said House oversight chair James Comer (R-Ky.) in a separate online posting.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the ranking member of the Oversight and Accountability Committee, said the committees’ actions against a private citizen, who has agreed to testify, are unwarranted and without precedent.
Biden “has offered to testify in public, under oath, and on a day of the Committee’s choosing,” Raskin said in a statement that dismissed the Republicans’ inquiry as lacking credibility.
“Chairman Comer does not want Hunter Biden to testify in public, just as he has refused to publicly release over a dozen interview transcripts, because he wants to keep up the carefully curated distortions, blatant lies, and laughable conspiracy theories that have marked this investigation,” Raskin said. “The facts and the evidence all show no wrongdoing and no impeachable offense by President Biden.”
Abbe Lowell, Hunter Biden’s attorney, also dismissed the investigation as a deceptive political game.
“It’s clear the Republican Chairmen aren’t interested in getting the facts or they would allow Hunter to testify publicly,” Lowell said in a statement responding to Friday’s announcement. “House Republicans continue to play politics by seeking an unprecedented contempt motion against someone who has from the first request offered to answer all their proper questions. What are they afraid of?”
Hunter Biden was called for questioning about his business dealings by House Republicans who have alleged ― without offering supporting evidence ― that his father benefited from his foreign business deals. He said he would answer lawmakers’ questions, but only if in a public hearing.
“There is no fairness or decency in what these Republicans are doing. They have lied over and over about every aspect of my personal and professional life, so much so that their lies have become the false facts believed by too many people,” Hunter Biden said in public remarks last month.
The investigation by the two committees, where Republicans hold majorities, is part of a longstanding GOP effort to impeach Joe Biden.
House Republicans unanimously voted last month to formally open an impeachment inquiry into the president, without accusing him of any wrongdoing. Democrats have said that Republicans’ determination to impeach Biden is payback for the two impeachments of former President Donald Trump.
If the committee votes to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress, his case would be referred to the Department of Justice, which would then consider potential charges.
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